Isolation and Partial Characterization of a Polysaccharide with Antithrombin Activity against Blood Coagulation in Manda^®, a Fermented Natural Food

A polysaccharide with antithrombin activity in Manda$^{(R)}& (PAM) was purified via procedures comprising three major steps, i.e. fractional precipitation with ethanol, anion exchange chromatography, and gel permeation chromatography. PAM showed a symmetrical peak on size exclusion HPLC, as assessed by refractive index, and behaved as a single band on cellulose acetate electrophoresis. The average molecular mass was estimated to be 222 kDa by gel filtration. PAM was found to be a sulfated heteropolysaccharide that contains sulfate group (20.5%, w/w) and uronic acid moiety (7.1 %, w/w) in addition to neutral sugar consisting of fucose, xylose, mannose, galactose, and glucose in a molar ratio of 1.00 : 0.35 : 0.28: 0.22 : 0.15. This polysaccharide appeared to inhibit blood coagulation via the intrinsic pathway in a dose-dependent pattern. The clotting of fibrinogen by thrombin was also significantly mitigated by the presence of PAM.